Posts Tagged ‘TBI’

Thursday, February 22nd marks the 20th anniversary of Michelle’s accident. For over 18 years she has been living at home with us. This is not the life we would have chosen but it is the most meaningful life we could ever have. All of the pretenses and posturing that occur in every day life have been stripped away. We are living with someone who wakes up every day with a smile and thanks God that she is still alive. She tells us how she is surrounded by love and lets everyone know how much she loves them. Being in her presence brings out the better part of all of us. When she was unconscious our neighbor, Charlotte Baecher, wrote a poem that describes the transformation Michelle has brought to all of us:
In her sleep
her spirit is one with His
both so alive to the other
What immense transactions are going on
undistracted
by mind and urge and sight
a complete “hearing” and surrender,
a knowledge we cannot know or guess.

But now we ask Him, please to bless
her even more – and give her back
to us and all distractions
a messenger transformed by you
to lift us who love her
to where she has been.

The film, “Your Health: A Sacred Matter,” will be on the World Channel on July 7th. For FIOS users it is channel 473, for Cablevision it is 133, for Spectrum it is 1277. It is an excellent film on the relationship between religion and medicine and Michelle and I are in the last 12 minutes. Enjoy!

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Michelle came home today. She spent a week in hospital therapy and is doing well. The therapists told me she walked 50 feet yesterday with a high walker. This is something she hasn’t done in a long time. The surgery was extremely intricate and difficult and we are all very grateful to the staff at NY Presbyterian Hospital. And then there’s Michelle. She is one tough cookie. Not one pain pill the entire time she was there and of course everyone fell in love with her.

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On Monday Michelle will again have spinal surgery at New York Presbyterian Hospital. They deflated the cyst in her spine in March but fluid has again filled the cyst. Now she is having surgery to put a stent in her cyst so this will not happen again. It is too dangerous to remove the cyst. Please keep her in your prayers.

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Over The Waterfall

Where does one find meaning when one's witty, intelligent, beautiful daughter is hit by a car while a senior at one of the country's most prestigious universities and lies unconscious for close to eight months only to emerge severely brain injured?